Can babies generate explanations?

For 16- and 17-month-olds

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. Your baby will watch videos depicting one of two events: a ball bouncing off of a wall, or appearing to pass through a wall, where the full shape of the wall (with either a hole on the bottom or on the top) is initially hidden from view. We will then test whether babies can generate an explanation for this event by seeing if they look longer at the wall that can explain the event that they saw.

Explanations are crucial for adults' reasoning abilities, but there has been little work done on explanation capabilities in children, and almost none in babies. Previous studies have suggested that babies can search for and recognize explanations, but can they generate them? Here we test that question!

15 minutes

Each participant who is in the required age range and participated in the study will receive a $5 gift card from Amazon.com within two weeks of study completion.